Vaughn Palmer: NDP attacks fall flat as party opens four years in political wilderness

B.C. NDP president Moe Sihota’s attendance at the Times of India Film Awards took the steam out of the NDP’s question period attack on the B.C. Liberals over the cost of the splashy event.

Photograph by: Ward Perrin
, Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA -- One week into the postelection session of the legislature and Opposition Leader Adrian Dix was on his feet in question period Wednesday, trying to hold the government to account for one of its pre-election promises.

The B.C. Liberals put up $11 million in public funds to bring the Times of India Film Awards to this province and it was money well spent, according to Premier Christy Clark, because of the presumed publicity payback when the ceremony would be broadcast in India.

“It will air in two weeks,” she told reporters on April 8, staging day for the awards. “There are going to be 400 million people who watch that show.”

Alas for B.C., as Dix noted, the initial broadcast was watched in 32 million households, according to India-based Tam Research.

Nothing like the premier’s forecast. But still a lot of viewers and that was only for the first of 11 projected showings, as jobs minister Shirley Bond observed by way of reply.

“This government is not going to be apologetic about recognizing one of the fastest-growing economies in the world,” she countered. “We are going to work as aggressively as we can to attract investment to make sure that people in India and people around the world recognize the benefits of British Columbia.”

“Well, now we know what the government means by ‘aggressive’,” Dix fired back. “They mean putting out totally fictitious numbers about possible viewers, before an election, and then not acknowledging in this house that they did so. The government is cutting mental health programs that could be funded for 30 years with the amount they spent on this partisan extravaganza.”

Partisan? With that word, Dix provided an opening for Finance Minister Mike de Jong, a big booster of the film awards. He pounced.

Moe Sihota, the former New Democratic Party cabinet minister and now president of the party, had attended the awards ceremony and de Jong had the pictures (which he later distributed to reporters) to prove it.

“How partisan is that?” he heckled.

“Moe Sihota comes to a lot of my events too, but I’m not asking for 11 million bucks,” Dix replied. “I mean here’s their defence: ‘We wasted 11 million bucks, but the minister of finance says Moe Sihota was there.’ ”

Nice try. But it was all downhill for the New Democrats after that.

Questions about temporary weekend closings of the Pattullo Bridge and the fate of the Riverview Hospital lands and went nowhere.

Then they revisited an issue that had worked for the Opposition last week, namely BC Hydro’s massive budget overrun on the Northwest Transmission line.

From $400 million to more than $700 million in two years, with no explanation from Hydro that satisfied the Liberals, never mind anyone else?

The outrage was well justified; still, one couldn’t help noting that none of the three NDP MLAs representing ridings in the northwest had joined in last week’s displays of indignation.

But now one of them did, seizing on Hydro’s admission that the project was costing more than expected because of the need to pay premiums to attract a skilled workforce from outside the northwest region.

“People in the communities that I represent were looking forward to getting good-paying jobs working on the Northwest Transmission line, “ said Robin Austin, MLA for Skeena, the riding centred on Terrace, which is the starting point for the 340-kilometre long high-voltage transmission line.

“Given the fact that the northwest region has had the highest unemployment in the province for the last decade, why were workers imported to the region for this project?”

Good question. But as it turned out Austin had another fish to fry before sitting down. “Just in case the minister is about to rise and suggest that I haven’t been supporting this project, I would point this out to him: If he wants to Google my name and Northwest Transmission line, he’ll find a BC Hydro presentation that specifically lists me under their northwest community support.”

Understandable that an MLA from the region would want to record that he was in support of a project — even an overbudget one — that was going to benefit the northwest in general and his riding in particular. But in doing so, he provided an easy comeback for the Energy Minister Bill Bennett.

“Welcome aboard,” Bennett replied, not hesitating to add a zinger. “Clearly, there is some difference of opinion on the other side of the house as to whether they all (do support it), but I am, nonetheless, happy to hear that the member does support the project.”

He wondered if Austin had seen the letter from Terrace Mayor Dave Pernarowski in that day’s Vancouver Sun, defending the power line as a boon to job creation and development in the region, notwithstanding the overrun.

“The mayor of the member’s hometown said that there was bustle back into the communities in the northwest. He said that there is an air of optimism again ... People are looking forward to the Northwest Transmission line creating thousands of jobs in the northwest.”

So it went: The optimists on one side, touting the message that scored with the voters; the pessimists on the other, tackling the necessary but thankless job of Opposition. It is going to be a long, long four years.

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